Harry Triguboff has set the price tag for his Meriton residential apartment business at a hefty $15 billion, revealing that once he sells the company he expects to branch out into water infrastructure.
“If I sell Meriton, I could get $12 billion to $15 billion easy,” Mr Triguboff told The Australian.
“If I sold Meriton — and I am only 81, thank God — I would like to get involved in water.”
Mr Triguboff wants Australia’s arid lands populated and has long supported water infrastructure projects in Israel, such as the development of reservoirs.
At home, the nation’s most prolific apartment developer has a $1bn project in Sydney’s Mascot on his hands this year and a $1.5bn development in Sydney’s Pagewood next year.
All up, he expects to build 3000 apartments in this year on the eastern seaboard and up to 5000 next year — provided he can get development approvals.
Despite Mr Triguboff’s $15bn asking price, a recent external valuation by Grant Samuel claimed Meriton was worth up to $10bn if recurring income was taken into account.
Meriton also revealed for the first time in its history that its net assets rose 21 per cent to $7.4bn last year and annual turnover jumped more than 50 per cent to $2bn in the past year. It jumped from 29th place on IbisWorld’s Top 500 to 11th place last year.
“I am learning about the (sale) process. To sell that type of business (Meriton) is a long process,” Mr Triguboff said, adding there were a couple of parties looking at the business, but no serious takers as yet. Chinese developer Country Garden, which has established a strong presence in Sydney, has signalled its interest.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Triguboff also called for interest rates to be lowered, but said he did not sit on company boards like his peer Frank Lowy, who sat on the Reserve Bank board from 1995 to 2005.
“I am a dictator, I am not a board member,” he said.
“I can’t go on a board. I am happy to advise, on the other hand.”
He said he did not like boards because they were “inefficient and take too long. I like speed.”
Meriton is this year building its largest project to date — the $1bn Mascot Central fronting 19-33 Kent Road, Mascot, in Sydney’s south.
The development will comprise 800 apartments and 386 serviced apartments, plus 16 shops, a Woolworths and a childcare centre.
Next year, the company will concentrate on the development at Pagewood comprising about 470 apartments and a childcare centre fronting 200 Coward Street.
Mr Triguboff said he would not allow a part sale or a carve-up of the business after sources suggested that he might sell the serviced apartment division.
This article first appeared in The Australian Business Review.